LOST RING
I am sharing with you the story of what happened to me just a few days ago, which I feel I need to tell in order to honor the blessed Souls in Purgatory, especially on this day.
A few days ago, while grocery shopping, I lost my engagement ring, which was a bit loose on me due to the change in temperature. I realized it as soon as I got home.
I felt discouraged, with no strength or desire to start praying for it to show up, nor to start looking for the ring. To make matters worse, my marriage was going through a rough patch, and that ring was the last thing I was still wearing from our wedding day (my wedding band became too small years ago, and I have it stored away, intending to get it resized).
That same day, I received a YouTube notification with María Vallejo-Nágera’s testimony about her experience with the souls in Purgatory, which she gave at the Garabandal Congress on October 17–18. It reminded me of her book—one of the first of hers I read many years ago—through which I began praying the St. Gertrude prayer of the 1,000 souls* daily. So I said to the Souls in Purgatory, "Alright, I'm asking you: place it here at home in a spot in plain sight where I won't have to look for it."
On the fourth day, when the ring still hadn't appeared, I decided to surrender to the Lord the sorrow of losing what had accompanied me through all my years of marriage up until now. I was overcome with sadness, thinking that this was reflection of what was happening in my marriage: 'that it was lost.' It was a temptation from the evil one, but I handed it over to Him.
At noon, right on the living room floor—in a spot I had swept and tidied that very morning and where there had been nothing—it appeared.
A flash of light made me look toward that corner, and I saw it. Instantly, the words I had spoken to the blessed Souls in Purgatory came back to me. Immediately, I began thanking God for everything: there was hope, 'all was not lost.'
As a gesture of gratitude to the Souls in Purgatory, I am sharing this testimony of the favor received through their intercession.
And because everything about us matters to God the Father, He sees me, cares for me with tenderness, and does not abandon me, especially in the darkest moments.
*«Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.»
Kati